SEOUL: North Korea has moved a launcher in place after completing preparations to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile and may go ahead with the launch in November, South Korean members of parliament said on Wednesday citing the country’s military intelligence.
South Korean MP Lee Seong-kweun said a mobile launcher has been deployed at a location for a possible test of the ICBM and its atmospheric re-entry of a missile warhead, potentially around the time of the US presidential election Nov. 5.
Lee was briefing reporters after a closed-door parliamentary hearing with Defense Intelligence Agency officials.
Another MP Park Sun-won said the DIA did not believe a missile was yet loaded on the launcher.
South Korean officials have said the North may attempt to launch a long-range missile or conduct its seventh nuclear test around the November US election to highlight its strategic weapons development.
North Korea may launch ICBM in November, launcher ready, South Korea says
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North Korea may launch ICBM in November, launcher ready, South Korea says
- South Korean MP Lee Seong-kweun said a mobile launcher has been deployed at a location for a possible test of the ICBM
- Lee was briefed reporters after a closed-door parliamentary hearing with Defense Intelligence Agency officials
Spain fines Airbnb 64 mn euros for posting banned properties
- The fine is final, the consumer affairs ministry said in a statement, adding the US holiday-rental giant must “correct the violations by deleting illegal content“
MADRID: Spain’s leftist government said Monday it had fined Airbnb more than 64 million euros ($75 million), notably for posting listings for banned rental properties, at a time the country faces a housing crisis.
The fine is final, the consumer affairs ministry said in a statement, adding the US holiday-rental giant must “correct the violations by deleting illegal content.”
The ministry said 65,122 adverts on Airbnb breached consumer rules, including the promotion of properties without a license or those whose license number did not match with data in registers.
The fine is equivalent to six times the illegal profit made by Airbnb between the time the company was warned about the offending adverts and before they were taken down, the ministry added.
A tourism boom has driven the buoyant Spanish economy but fueled local concern about increasingly scarce and unaffordable housing, a top priority for the minority coalition government.
The world’s second most-visited country hosted a record 94 million foreign tourists in 2024 and is on course to surpass that figure this year.
But residents of hotspots such as Barcelona blame short-term rentals for the housing crisis and changing their neighborhoods.
In June, the consumer rights ministry also ordered online accommodation giant Booking.com to take down more than 4,000 illegal adverts.
“There are thousands of families who are living on the edge due to housing, while a few get rich with business models that expel people from their homes,” far-left consumer rights minister Pablo Bustinduy said in the ministry statement.
“We’ll prove it as many times as necessary: no company, no matter how big or powerful, is above the law. Even less so when it comes to housing,” he added on social network Bluesky.
